


In Orbit Around the Doctor

by Codango



Category: Doctor Who, 赤髪の白雪姫 | Akagami no Shirayukihime
Genre: Alternate Universe - Doctor Who Fusion, Alternate Universe - Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Fusion, Alternate Universe - Phantom of the Opera Fusion, Crossover, F/M, First Meetings, Medical School, Prompt Fill, Sirens, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-10 09:29:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15288570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Codango/pseuds/Codango
Summary: Looking back, Shirayuki questioned the exact moment when her good sense left her. Was it before or after the screeching blue police box materialized in the common yard of her apartment complex? At 2:16 p.m. on a Tuesday? Like it was a thing to do?Most likely, her common sense had fled at least a little before then. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been quite so comfortable with approaching it.Well. Comfortable may not be the right word. There were many words that described her experiences whirling in orbit around the Doctor. But comfortable probably wasn’t one of them.





	1. Doctor Who

**Author's Note:**

> ObiYuki Bingo! Trying to fill a prompt per "chapter," with the prompt as the chapter title for clarity. The chapters will most likely all be small.
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr at [@codango](http://codango.tumblr.com/) or on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/marcella_writes)!

Looking back, Shirayuki questioned the exact moment when her good sense left her. Was it before or after the screeching blue police box materialized in the common yard of her apartment complex? At 2:16 p.m. on a Tuesday? Like it was a thing to do?

Most likely, her common sense had fled at least a little before then. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been quite so comfortable with approaching it.

Well. _Comfortable_ may not be the right word. There were many words that described her experiences whirling in orbit around the Doctor. But _comfortable_ probably wasn’t one of them.

* * *

He was tall. Young. At first, she thought it was an elaborate hoax. “I’m not sure how you got that thing to just…appear,” she said, hoping she sounded sophisticated and cynical as she waved at the old-fashioned police box. “But I’m not giving my consent to being filmed. I’m not signing anything.”

He looked down at her, with his golden cat eyes and secretive smile. His hair stood up all over, adding to the image of a cat too feral to be domesticated. Perhaps a cat that would trot up to the back step for water and leftovers once in a while but would dart away when you tried to pet it.

Not that she was imagining petting him. She double-checked that her scowl hadn’t drift into something more like awe. Whatever, so the man was good-looking. He was probably someone trying to get famous on YouTube.

“Now there is a thought,” he said, bemused. “Perhaps I should have companions sign a contract before boarding. Except we’re usually in a rush.” He glanced back at the police call box. “What do you think?”

“Companion?” Shirayuki stammered. “Now, look—”

The white light at the top of the box lit up a few times, a series of long and short flashes.

“Normally I would agree,” the man said to the box, “but since we have time—”

The blue box made a horrific noise, like gears clanking into place in front of an industrial fan.

“You know what I mean.” The man looked sternly at the box. “That joke was old a millennia ago. Or five minutes. Whichever view you take.”

“Excuse me,” Shirayuki said abruptly. “I’m not at all sure what’s…going on here.”

The man beamed down at her. He really was rather breathtaking, in a scrappy, careless sort of way.

Shirayuki swallowed. “But good luck. I guess. In whatever you’re trying to do.” She had been on her way out for a jog. She wasn’t particularly good at it, but it was a way to clear her mind between exams. Med school was going to make her head spin clean off her shoulders, she was certain of it.

She wondered if she should just go back inside and lock her apartment door after her. He didn’t look harmful, but she had reason to be wary. Like so many others.

“Thanks!” His grin looked easy. Undemanding. “Right now, I have a very serious mission.”

Oh god. Here it was. The plea to do something ridiculous for his twenty subscribers on YouTube.

“I’m looking for a good takeout place. Fish and chips for preference.” He cocked his head disarmingly. “Any recommendations?”

“Oh. Um.” She hesitated, but she did like pointing people toward Yuzuri whenever she got the chance. The food trucks you liked stayed in business if they got business. “The Cat’s Meow is parked at Eleventh and Grover. Huge pink truck, you can’t miss it.”

Golden eyes lit up. “Oh is this when food trucks are cool? Such a useful word, _cool_ , long-lasting, usually works. Right! Eleventh and Grover. Cat’s Meow. I’m the Doctor.” He thrust out a long, brown hand at her. “And you are?”

A doctor. Well, that would just about explain everything. She took his hand and pumped it once. “Shirayuki. Enjoy the chips, Doctor.” She put her earbud in—just the one ear, she always left the other clear—and walked quickly toward her usual running path. Just an eccentric doctor, the neighborhood was full of them. She’d be fine.

And that was just the beginning.


	2. Mermaid

Perhaps it was the power of her own suggestion, but Shirayuki stopped by the Cat’s Meow food truck on her cool-down walk after her jog. She’d only gone two miles, but Yuzuri made a fuss over her nonetheless, and the fish taco was to die for as usual, and so Shirayuki was in quite high spirits as she neared her apartment complex.

Spirits that were dashed to hear:

“Shirayuki! Wait up, hang on a sec…”

Her shoulders went up to her ears, a bite of taco still in her mouth. If she didn’t look around, ostensibly she was far enough away to not have heard him. She still had an earbud in, even though her music was off. She could pretend she hadn’t heard.

She picked up speed ever so slightly.

“Shirayuki? Hey! Wait!”

Nope. No, she was not waiting, not to be asked out for the sixth time this month, not when she knew Raj had a steadfast inability to accept _no_ as any kind of answer. It sucked that they lived in the same complex, but if she hurried, she could probably duck around something and lose him—

She could hear his footsteps, quicker than hers. She couldn’t run, that would shatter any pretense, and he’d already gotten so belligerent the last few times…

Shirayuki turned the corner into the common yard and nearly skidded to a halt. The odd blue police box was still standing there. Good lord, it had been at least an hour, was the YouTuber that desperate for subscribers? She reminded herself he was a doctor, and therefore most logic normally applicable to humans should be tossed out the window.

“Shirayuki, are you seriously pretending you can’t hear me!”

 _Shit._ She ducked around the side of the police box. It was horrid cover, a move that just emphasized how childish she was about confrontation, really. She leaned against the old blue wood, breathing quickly. Her taco dripped in her hand. How was it she couldn’t think faster than this?

“Shirayuki?” A different voice, undemanding and curious, right behind her ear. Right before she fell backward into empty space.

* * *

 

A number of things happened in quick succession immediately thereafter. The thing that stood out the most in her mind, traitorous recorder of events that it was, was the grip on her upper arms. Catching her as she fell, supporting her while she got her legs under her again. Holding her gently as the Doctor listened at the door to the bizarre little shed they were in.

The look on the Doctor’s face as Raj continued to call for her like he owned her. Like he was put out that she wasn’t appearing at his command. Like she was a Labrador, or something.

“Right,” he grumbled. Flicking a latch on the blue door. “Time to move on just for now, I think.”

And they did.

The box made its horrid, gear-grinding noise again, she turned around, and the Doctor laughed nervously as she got her first look at the inside of the blue box.

Later, after they’d had a loud, emphatic conversation that lasted quite a while and was, in the aftermath, too boring to recount, Shirayuki learned the ancient blue police box was called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. A phrase that seemed to say a lot and at the same time absolutely nothing helpful at all.

The Doctor was a tall, wiry, quick sort of man, young looking but with very, very old eyes. He danced around the cavernous inside of the box (he waited for her to say it, like a kid at Christmas: “How is it…bigger on the inside?” she gasped. He laughed, delighted, as if he’d heard it before and it never got old), punching this button, slamming that lever, spinning that wheel.

Within the first five minutes of this nonsense, she realized that her fish taco was mashed all over her hand and still dripping. This time, dripping on a floor made up of glowing lights underneath some kind of metal grid. It was all very elaborate for a YouTube video. Perhaps he had more than twenty subscribers. Perhaps he was one of the celebrities she didn’t have time to know about.

Whatever he was, he looked busy. Determined and excited all at once. Shirayuki lay the taco on a surface that didn’t look too important and tried to discreetly lick her hand clean. Wiped it on her running shorts when she was near enough satisfied.

She approached him cautiously. He was staring at a readout on a little screen. “Um. Well, thank you,” she said, mostly for lack of any other ideas. “I imagine Raj is gone now, so I can just—”

“Oh, hello!” He looked at her, an easy grin on his lean face. There was a scar above one barely-there eyebrow. She wondered how he got it. “Who?”

She blinked. “Who what?”

“Raj, I believe you said?”

“Oh. Oh, yes, him.” The simpering son of the med school’s largest donor hardly seemed important at the moment. “I was saying I think he’s gone. I can probably get to my apartment now without a problem.”

“Ah.” The Doctor looked momentarily embarrassed, then it was gone in a flash. “We’ll be there in a moment. Nearly a moment. Near as won’t make a difference, I promise.” He glanced at the huge console taking up a good portion of the center of the enormous space. “I think I promise.”

Shirayuki knew she was gaping at him, but what choice did she have really? She understood all the words, but put together they didn’t make any sense at all. “I’m just saying, I think I’m all right to leave now…” She walked over to the front door. Or what she was pretty sure was the front door; the room was a bit beyond the bounds of reason.

“Oh, ah, well—” The Doctor raced after her, but not before she’d pulled the door open.

The apartment’s common yard was gone. In its place was a raging sea. Briny wind whipped her hair, strange birds cried in delight on the wing, spray assaulted her face as it was borne from towering sharp boulders at her feet. Something haunting and musical wound through the cacophony. A siren call that bade her step out. Let the wind and the spray lift her and take her…

“Yes, right.” The door slammed shut in her face.

Her whole body sagged, and she felt her breath leave her in a gasp. “What the hell—”

The Doctor leaned against the door and wiped a hand over his face. His chest heaved, and she realized how close they stood, actually. He looked down at her with a wary grin. “My mistake, I forgot I had someone along, it’s been a minute. I, ah, took a work call.”

“…a work call?” she repeated in a rasp.

“Yes, that’s something you get, right? Medical student?” He waved a hand at the med school lanyard peeking from under her tank top. It’s where she kept her keys under her sports bra when she ran. “I’m on call. All the time, really. Madness.”

“What on earth was—” She hadn't blinked since he'd shut the door. She wanted to see again. Was afraid to. _Wanted to._

“Ah.” The Doctor glanced over a shoulder. The small windows were frosted. Shirayuki at least couldn’t see through them. “The mermaids on Planet Anthemoessa are acting up again.”


	3. Phantom of the Opera

The mermaids, fortunately, weren’t so bad. The Doctor gave her a pair of earmuffs that he said would dampen the mermaids' influence, and they seemed to. At least, Shirayuki didn’t feel like throwing herself dramatically off a cliff into the exciting embrace of the sea any longer. Well. Perhaps once or twice. She and the Doctor were on Anthemoessa for a whole week, sorting out a political uprising among a somewhat volatile mermaid colony. The siren call was a lot harder to throw off when you were right next to an angry mermaid.

“Next,” said the Doctor, jumping around the TARDIS’s console once they’d got all that sorted, “something just as musical, but with hopefully less of a penchant for death.”

“Next?” Shirayuki repeated, still a bit dazed despite the earmuffs. “Hopefully?”

“Well.” He spun a dial, cat eyes not looking at her. “Paris is always tricky.”

Shirayuki thought briefly of her semester exams. She thought of the mermaids’ beautiful and deadly songs. “What are we doing in Paris?”

He looked at her with a mix of delight and hope. “Someone thinks a mind-controlling alien is loose in the Palais Garnier. I thought we could pop in, maybe take in a show after?”

It was on the tip of Shirayuki’s tongue to say no. Until she remembered she’d never been to Paris. And if she ever did, she’d probably never “take in a show” at the Palais Garnier. “You can definitely get me back to the moment right after my run the other day…right?” She said _the other day_ because she couldn’t be any more certain than that as to when that had been. But surely he knew. He seemed to know so much.

“As near as makes no difference,” the Doctor said, not looking at her.

She still went to Paris.

The Palais Garnier was everything it promised to be. Velvet and gilt and chandeliers and, everywhere, the thick aura of history melted into art. The TARDIS, Shirayuki discovered, not only provided a robust translation service, it also supplied appropriate wardrobe upon request. She was almost unsurprised when two discreet robots materialized from the walls to assist her in the bustle and the corsetry and, dear god, the hat. But when she stepped out into the console room in head-to-toe 1880s Paris finery, there was a look in the Doctor’s eye that suggested the inconvenience was worth it.

He looked quickly away but held out his arm. Was there a faint flush high on those cheekbones? “Allow me, miss.”

She decided that eyes straight ahead wasn’t a bad idea. His tuxedo and greatcoat were well cut, and a modest top hat made him seem even taller.

The top hat didn’t make it back to the TARDIS, nor did her own feather-and-lace concoction. They were left to molder somewhere in the vast sewers of Paris. Hat pins, as it turned out, were no match for a dead run from an enraged alien denied its prey of an attractive young opera singer it had been grooming for years.

Shirayuki hadn’t seen what the Doctor had done to stop the faceless alien in its tracks—she’d been running ahead of him with the shocked but grimly determined opera singer—but she had managed to glance over her shoulder for him once.

There was a bright light and an unearthly howl. When the Doctor joined them later, his tuxedo was covered in a spray of dark green. Wordlessly, he handed the singer the alien’s simple white mask.

The girl held it in both hands. Turned it over once. Then took a deep breath and snapped it in two. Threw it to her feet. Stomped on it with a small heeled boot. By the time the white mask was crumbled into so much dust on the sewer floor, the singer’s breathing was coming hard.

“She didn’t scream once,” Shirayuki recalled, once she and the Doctor were back in the TARDIS. Her long skirts were trailing mud over the pristine floor. The Doctor was still dripping green. “I hope she’ll be okay. I hope…that’s really the last of him.”

“He was a remnant of The Silence.” The way the Doctor said it made Shirayuki think that he was leaving out a few details. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “A religious group, normally, but this individual must have skived off to chart his own course. Not the first cleric to pursue dominance over other beings rather than do his job. Like, you know, prevent the end of the world.”

Yes, she was definitely missing a few details.

“The end of the world?” she asked. She could see how his knuckles were white as they gripped a lever.

“Ah.” The Doctor relaxed, threw her a grin that made her heart jump. “That was handled. More or less. No worries.” He scanned her up and down, eyeing the caked mud and torn lace. “Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable in sweatpants? I’d feel more comfortable in sweatpants. Autopilot it is. Reconvene in fifteen.”

She watched him turn on a heel and walk into the unfathomable depths of the TARDIS. Even caked in mud, the tuxedo was impossible to look away from. The way it skimmed his waist, clung to his thighs.

She told herself she could leave whenever she wanted to.


	4. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Using my Any AU of Your Choice square for this one ;) Can you imagine Obi and Shirayuki opposite Phryne and Jack? Augh, my heart.

Shirayuki was sitting in a cushioned chair hanging from the TARDIS's rafters. She was sipping a tea and milk, gazing out a skylight. The stars were stunning like this. A quiet, Southern country night had nothing on drifting lazily through time and space. She tucked her feet under her and leaned back in the chair, humming at a comet streaking past.

“Comfortable?”

Shirayuki didn’t jump. She was used to his voice popping up in an unusual places. The Doctor moved silent as a cat and seemed to be able to climb just about anywhere in the TARDIS’s never-ending rigging. She leaned her head back and smiled to see him perched on an I-beam to her left. “Very.”

He watched her with his own pleased smile. He stood and walked along the beam to plop down on the rafter her chair hung from. She no longer gasped to see these circus stunts. It was the Doctor. He could do the impossible, and she’d ceased questioning it.

“Where to next?” she asked after they’d gazed out at the stars together for a long moment. Time was a wibbly-wobbly thing, especially inside the TARDIS. She’d nearly ceased questioning it.

“Well, I thought after that last thing with the weeping angels, we could do with a real vacation. Something familiar. Familiar enough.” He glanced down at her, a look she could translate now. Checking to see how receptive she was to something new.

She pretended to heave a resigned sigh. “What, a long-lost planet overrun by a sentient virus? A colony on a moon that’s never seen women before?” She grinned at him. “Idyllic.”

Golden eyes flashed, and she could tell he fought a smile. “I actually thought we’d stick to Earth this time, but if those other options are what you’re looking for—”

“Don’t you dare. Where on Earth?” For a brief moment, she was afraid he’d take her back to her apartment. Back to med school. She’d learned so much, traveling with him. About the medical needs of species she’d never imagined; there was medical science from cultures advanced so far beyond what she’d been studying; medical technologies that pulled patients from the depths of diseases she could have never conceived of.

Could she go back to less than all of that?

But the Doctor looked too proud of himself to be dropping her back at her own doorstep. “Ever been to Melbourne?”

“Australia?” She knew her eyes lit up when he couldn’t stop his own huge grin.

“Shall we look for others?” he teased.

“Stop.” She swatted at him ineffectually. “When?”

“Sometime fun,” he said, leaning down, elbows on knees. “Colorful. Sometime…that feels new. Hopeful.” He stopped holding her gaze. “I was thinking the ‘20s.”

Right before the Great Depression. Right between world wars. Shirayuki couldn’t help but think there was something ominous about that. Perhaps you could only really find hope when you didn’t know what was coming next. And you could fool yourself into thinking it would only be good things.

But she smiled brightly. “Melbourne in the jazz age. Sounds amazing.”

His grin was back when he looked down at her again. “Plus I get to see you as a flapper. Not to be missed.”

She laughed, felt a blush coming on. Suddenly she couldn’t wait to see what the TARDIS’s wardrobe had in store.

Nothing, as it turned out, to compare to the wardrobe of a certain British heiress enjoying her post-war comforts in Melbourne. Miss Phryne Fisher nearly flattened Shirayuki, darting around an ice cream stand near the beach on a sunny day.

“Oh good lord!” the woman gasped, crocheted glove to a red-painted mouth. “Oh dear me, I’m ever so sorry, good lord, are you all right?” She stood immediately, never minding the Doctor offering her a hand, and helped Shirayuki to her feet with no trouble. “Oh good heavens, that lovely skirt, I’m so sorry, we can get the stains out, I’m sure of it.”

“No, no,” Shirayuki managed when she found her voice. The woman was stunning, her smooth black bob a metaphor for the rest of her appearance—not a hair out of place, not a bead missing from the embroidered dress. Jewelry sparkled, French perfume wafted. “No harm done,” Shirayuki finished weakly.

“Oh? Oh, if you’re sure?” The woman’s smile was dazzling. “Introductions then. The Honorable Phryne Fisher.” She produced a hand smartly. “Delighted to make your acquaintance.”

 _The Honorable…?_ Shirayuki took the gloved hand. “Um…just…Shirayuki is fine, I’m, I’m a nurse. Well, nursing student actually—” Miss Fisher’s eyebrows went up above her dark smoked glasses. “—Er, this is the Doctor!” Shirayuki said hurriedly.

“A nurse and a doctor?” Miss Fisher’s smile could have rivaled all the lights inside the TARDIS. “I must check my horoscope more often. I was unaware this would be my lucky day.” She looped Shirayuki’s hand through her arm—Shirayuki shivered at the cool feel of silk against her bare arm—and turned to walk briskly right back around the ice cream stand. “If you don’t mind escorting us, Doctor?” Miss Fisher called over her shoulder.

Shirayuki glanced back at him as she was quickly pulled along. A stunned look seemed to be dissipating from his face, replaced with bemused resignation. “Traipsing after two gorgeous women,” he said with a deep sigh. “How far the mighty have fallen.”

“Perhaps not the mighty this time, Doctor,” Miss Fisher said, her lilting voice suddenly quite grave. “If I could get your professional opinion…?”

Shirayuki came to a halt just outside a small changing shed. The door was half-open; muffled, serious voices coming from inside were barely audible. And she knew.

The Doctor’s entire stance changed, to a demeanor no one would ever think of describing as _traipsing_. “Have a look, Shirayuki,” he said low. “I’m just going to wander around.” He nodded to Miss Fisher, and before he fully turned away, he had his sonic screwdriver out and scanning the area.

Miss Fisher didn’t look panicked. Not flustered in the slightest. She looked like someone who’d seen whatever was inside that changing shed before. “Your doctor is the squeamish sort, is he?” she asked calmly.

Shirayuki didn’t know how best to respond to that. Of course the Doctor wasn’t squeamish. The only reason he wasn’t bursting the door down himself was because something else had called him. Caught his attention. Something horribly, horribly necessary that he not ignore.

She settled for, “He’s not that kind of doctor,” and walked into the changing shed, head high. So much for a vacation where all was new and hopeful.


	5. Lions of the Mountain

Watching Miss Fisher—Phryne—and the Doctor together was educational. Two seasoned flirts having a go at each other, neither one serious but both definitely appreciative of the expertise of the other. Shirayuki stayed mostly silent during their exchanges over the next week, recognizing that she was woefully out of her league.

It was bearable because she knew—she’d known—that she had no claim on him, none at all. The Doctor had her along on his adventures through time and space because she’d been around when it was convenient for him and she’d said yes. It wasn’t such a horrible feeling as it might have been in other circumstances; he’d been around the galaxies for millennia. Traveling with him for a bit was about as much as a mortal like her was entitled to.

She reminded herself of this sternly whenever he turned those golden cat eyes on her and smiled that relieved smile, as if it brought him peace that she was still around. He probably looked at every one of his companions like that. And so what if he had?

Phryne Fisher’s flirting was also bearable because of the presence of Detective Robinson. “Jack,” as Phryne called him at every possible opportunity.

“Oh, Jack.”

“Why, Jack.”

“Goodness, Jack.”

“Now, Jack.”

Like she was daring him to call her Phryne. Stoic, disciplined to a fault, the detective never did. Phryne was “Miss Fisher,” always. He said it like he was addressing the Queen. This seemed to ensure that no matter how flirtatious she was with the Doctor, Phryne forgot him the instant Jack required her attention, no matter how slightly.

At first, Shirayuki watched the Doctor to see if he was at all hurt on these occasions. He only ever reacted to Phryne’s change of focus with a secret smile. Shirayuki told herself she wasn’t at all pleased by this. She had no reason to be, therefore she wasn’t.

At the end of the week, when the murderer was on well on his way to a lifetime behind bars, Phryne snuggled up to Jack’s side as everyone said their goodbyes in front of the TARDIS. Jack couldn’t stop staring at the blue box. Phryne, for her part, beamed at the thing like it was an old friend.

“Paris, 1918, wasn’t it, Doctor?” she said cheekily. “You’ve kept it in good condition.”

Shirayuki’s and Jack’s jaws dropped.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Yes, well.”

“An absolute pleasure to meet you, Shirayuki,” Phryne breezed on. “I hope our paths cross again.”

It had been a long week. Shirayuki _thought_ she knew how the game was played by now. Blushing like an Australian sunset, she tried to look confident. “Only if I get a reception like the Doctor got.”

The Doctor froze at her side. Jack’s jaw snapped shut. Phryne looked delighted, red lips stretched wide. “Oh how splendid!” She actually hopped twice. “Shirayuki, darling, I’m so sorry I didn’t get the chance to introduce you to my friend Mac. She’s a doctor, an actual doctor.” She turned her glorious smile on the Doctor. “I’m absolutely kicking myself I didn’t make that moment happen.”

His grin was wry. “I’m just sure you are. Miss Fisher.”

Melbourne’s only lady detective stepped back, her arm still entwined in Jack’s. “Next time, then,” she said.

The Doctor sighed, exasperated but fond. “I’m sure you’ll see to it.” He nodded at Jack. “The forces of time and space bend to the Honorable Phryne Fisher’s will, sir.”

“I find that no great surprise.” Jack gave a slight, grave bow, and Shirayuki and the Doctor were off, back to the stars.

* * *

 

Later—years, eons, whatever the passage of time—Shirayuki would be asked the question, _but what was your most memorable adventure with the Doctor?_ She would pick something different on every occasion. Perhaps she’d share about her first, with the mermaids. Or the many companions she met at different moments in their own journeys. Perhaps she’d pick a deathly battle against the Master.

Because the most memorable adventure was one she couldn’t bear to talk about too much. Not because it was too painful or too strange to be given credence. It was fragile. Like an ice sculpture that would melt into oblivion, or worse, a meaningless lump, with overhandling.

But she turned it over in her mind regularly. Certainly each time she was asked to think back on the Doctor.

It was difficult to say at what point in her travels this happened. Certainly long after she’d stopped pretending to herself that she’d ever go back to her little apartment with the shared courtyard.

The Doctor had been pensive for several days. There was no mission, no call from a far-off galaxy for aid. She would catch him, every now and then, looking at her with something that made her chest ache. If she didn’t know the Doctor (and well, who could say if anyone did), she’d call it a look of utter hopelessness.

One day, as he set down their usual cup of tea after waking, he said, “I’d like to stop somewhere today.”

Shirayuki went on high alert. “What’s happened?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” he assured, though they both knew how those assurances could be turned on their heads in a blink. “I really just want to…look around somewhere. Show you something.” He looked down at his teacup. “In fact, we should avoid affecting anything while we’re there, to be honest.”

The thing about honesty, when it came to the Doctor, was that you couldn’t quite trust it as solid. Shirayuki had long since settled on the belief that weaving through time and space and popping into stories at any moment in their narrative meant that honesty was in fact a malleable thing from his perspective. Sometimes you had to look backward to see where the honesty had been, but Shirayuki found that it was always there someplace.

She smiled and drank the last of their tea. “Whenever you’re ready,” was all she said.

The TARDIS settled on a patch of rock high in the mountains. Shirayuki stepped outside—no special outfit beyond jeans and hoodies needed for this, the Doctor had said—and gasped at the view. The roar of a distant waterfall filled her ears. A raptor cried far above her. The scent of pine was crisp on the air. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed. She closed her eyes and let the feel of the place wash over her. It was like electricity was skittering gently over her skin, the most exciting, pleasant, welcoming sensation.

“Where are we?” She opened her eyes at last.

The Doctor was watching her, a small, knowing smile on his lips. “Let’s walk a bit.”

It was not an answer, but Shirayuki was used to this, too. If you pushed the Doctor for an answer too soon, all you’d get was obscure riddles that might actually send you trotting off in a wrong direction. Best to wait for clarity. She wrapped her arm in his. “Lead on,” she commanded with a flourish of her hand.

The sounds changed first. Birdcall and the rush of mountain water made room for more industrial noise—the gentle cacophony of a decent number of people going about some work or other. Shirayuki shot the Doctor a curious glance, but his response was merely to tip her a closemouthed smile. No clarity yet then.

The pines gave way to a small bare cliff. Shirayuki moved to the edge, but the Doctor crouched and crawled forward instead. Swallowing faint alarm, Shirayuki followed his example. Her eyes went wide. The cliff overlooked a village of sorts. She vacuumed in details as quickly as she could—in unknown situations, data kept you from dying.

Perhaps about…fifty people milled around a campus of sorts. Simple log cabins mingled with rustic tents throughout a cleared space in the mountain forest. A few fires crackled here and there, and people cooked over them or did laundry in cauldrons or dried fish or plants or skins. A few children raced here and there around industrious but pleasant-looking adults. The men were simple tunics and canvas pants and serious boots, with a few beards here and there. The women mostly wore long dresses, but a few of the younger ones seemed to favor long tunics over slim pants. A few kerchiefs, a few braids. The overall effect was an older time and place, moreso than following the requirements of, say, a religion.

Again, Shirayuki glanced quizzically at the Doctor. He was staring down into the little village with grim determination. A sudden intake of breath, and his focus was eagle-sharp. Shirayuki whipped her head around back to the scene below.

A large cabin sprawled farther into the forest, two stories tall, clearly the most important structure of them all. A lanky young man was coming down the stairs. Tall and bronze with short, wiry black hair. He was not so far away that Shirayuki missed the aura of frustration emanating from his posture. She narrowed her eyes at him. The way he clasped one hand over his shoulder was…familiar.

The young man tilted his head up at the crystal blue sky and seemed to laugh. Resigned. She was too far away, there was no way she could be certain, but she could swear.

She looked at the Doctor. His eyes were already on her. Such an unusual color. She never would have thought she’d see such a color in two different faces in her lifetime.

“Obi!”

Shock lanced through Shirayuki’s veins. Her head snapped back to the boy at the cabin. It had been a girl’s voice, high and clear, and it appeared to have arrested him as much as it had Shirayuki.

The young man had turned immediately. His boot was on the next step up the stairs. His body was a coiled spring.

A girl, perhaps in her late teens, small and lithe as a nymph, danced down the stairs to meet him, hands outstretched. “Obi!” she scolded again, and the rest of her words were lost to the mountain wind.

Shirayuki felt as if that same wind had snatched her breath right along with it. The girl’s hair was red. Apple red and shining.

“Sometimes,” the Doctor said quietly, “a story is determined to have no happy ending. No matter when or where it’s told.”

Shirayuki strove against the ice water encroaching in her veins. She looked back down at the couple. So young. “You don’t know their story,” she breathed.

He said nothing for a while. Then, “Her father is the village leader. They call themselves the Lions of the Mountain. She’s home for a visit. Normally she resides in a neighboring kingdom.” He stood, brushed off the knees of his jeans. “She’s engaged to a prince.”

Something in Shirayuki rebelled. “She is not.”

He blinked at her, surprise in those unusual eyes.

“She wouldn’t be,” Shirayuki finished without conviction.

The Doctor smiled but it wasn’t a happy thing. He nodded his head back toward the village. “And he is the prince’s knight. Assigned to her protection.”

Shirayuki tightened her jaw. Followed his gaze for a moment. The redhead chattered in the sunshine, green eyes tracking every movement of the lean face looking down at her. “They’re still in the middle of their story,” she said quietly. “If they want to…they can change anything.”

Without another word, she turned back to the Doctor, stood on her toes, and kissed him full on the mouth. Firm. Longer than a moment. When she stepped back, she watched him open his eyes.

“I’d like to see a story with a will stronger than mine,” she said at last. Then turned and walked to the TARDIS.

At last. Clarity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Normally I dislike open-ended, ambiguous endings. Unfortunately, we're dealing with the Doctor here, and if there's one thing that's consistent in that show, it's that closure is not a thing.


End file.
